A strong strategy RPG adventure full of fun and humour. If you're a fan of anime and strategy RPGs then try Disgaea 2.
Disgaea 2 is a strategy RPG similar to Final Fantasy Tactics. It is a game that forces it's players to formulate a strategy in a chess like manner to defeat the foes that are encountered throughout the game. You have several players at your disposal including fighters, magicians, healers, thieves, ninjas, geomancers, archers, and many unlockable job classes as you meet certain criteria. Weapons of choice range from swords, axes, spears to guns, bows, staffs and fighting gloves. Each item has their own attributes that can potentially increase your stats, and what's more you can enter an "item world" to improve your item by fighting demons in the item world. As with weapons, items to increase your defence and speed comprise of a variety of armor, shields, shoes, and glasses that can be used.
The gameplay of Disgaea 2 is straightforward, and if you've played any strategy RPGs before then playing Disgaea 2 will be a walk in the park in terms of gameplay mechanics. Essentially you use your characters to move across grids (geo panels) and perform a variety of spells, fighting techniques, and special moves to obliterate your enemies. Combo moves are possible depending on the position of your characters within each other and strategy is essential in formulating an effective battle sequence. Depending on the type of character and the attributes that they have, movements across the grids are limited in terms of distance and hieght. I found the gameplay to be very simple yet challenging as you are required to always use strategy in order to be successful.
The Dark Assembly, which is a assembly akin to voting members that vote to pass a bill is used to increase various attributes of your characters. In this case you would present various attributes or characters that you want to create and the assembly will vote in favour or against your petition. You have the ability to bribe the members of the assembly with items to vote for you and ultimately win your petition. In this way you raise your stats, unlock other features, reincarnate your characters to other job classes, or create characters with unique job classes. This makes replay value of this game very appealing as there are many possible job classes to be discovered as well as various other "side quests" during your adventure, such as the Cave of Ordeals.
The graphics are average at best, as this game uses an anime style artwork. I have watched my fair share of anime and the style used in this game is fairly simple yet colourful and lively. I can appreciate the style and colour used in this game as some scenes do jump out in artistic fashion, however overall the graphics are nothing too spectacular. The cut scenes were very entertaining and the flow of the plot was consistent with each cut scene.
The voice acting is done very well, each character has been represented by thier respective voice actors in good fashion. This game is very humorous, I found myself laughing at each cut scene as the humour is ubiquitous and entertaining. Several characters stand out as comical and one such character is Tink, a frog with a French accent. Tink is Rozalin's childhood servant and has been turned into a frog by one of the characters in the game (which I will not mention not to spoil anything). Tink provides us with comic relief at every turn of the game. His comments leaves you laughing and wondering what will come out next from his mouth. Overall the sounds and music from this game is good. The music could have been more developed as there were no memorable tunes that stood out in this game. However due to the excellent work done on the voice acting I rated the sound portion of the game very high.
Finally the plot of this game was very simple, about as simple as you can get with this genre of game. It's a story about a young boy searching out an Overlord to lift a curse that has consumed the world of Veldime in hopes of returning his parents back to human. Adell the main character of this game is human and has not been affected by Zennon's curse. He vows to find and destroy Zennon and promises to keep his word to Rozalin to return her to her father, Overlord Zennon. During his adventure he shows that he is an individual with integrity and honour, with moral values and a courageous spirit that backs down to no one.
Disgaea 2 is a fun, humorous game that will leave you laughing as well as using your head to come up with strategies to defeat your foes. The characters are engaging and fun to watch as each have personalities that make the game entertaining and amusing. Disgaea 2 is a strategy RPG that is challanging and witty. Although I would say this game is average, I do recommend this game to anyone that enjoys good humour and colourful characters. The replay value is high due to the many unlockable characters that you can attain, as well as different endings that can be acquired depending on the outcome of your play. So hurry to your nearest game store as Overlord Zennon awaits you!